How to Start Using Flickr for Tourism Marketing (Part 1)

You are not Flickr user yet, but you have certainly heard of this global online photo sharing and management site owned by Yahoo! Tens of millions people use Flickr around the world, which makes it the most popular among all photo sites.

Flickr is widely used by destination marketers and tourism businesses, and travellers alike. Take a simple test, go to Flickr Search and type the name of your destination or attraction. You will get hundreds, maybe thousands photos. Those photos are taken by people who already have been in your place, and who have liked it so much, that they share their stories with friends and the rest of the world. These people are your volunteer marketers! It is wonderful, isn’t it?

This is first, and highly important reason, why you should start using Flickr – to take care of your online ambassadors, who are passionate about your destination, connect to them and engage. Other good reasons for using Flickr might be:

raising awareness of your tourism destination using photos

enhancing information about attractions, activities, events

creating online library of you photos for easy browse, view and download for your partners and media

crowdsourcing user generated photos for using on your website

We will discuss more about these issues in coming weeks. But now let’s look 5 first steps on How to start using Flickr?

1) create your account by signing up here. You will get a Yahoo account which is also your Flickr account. If you already have a Yahoo account you can just use it. A confirmation message will be sent to you via email. Verify it by clicking a link in the email message and so you have created your account. You can learn how to use some other Yahoo services if you wish so, or just continue with Flickr.

2) Second step is to choose your Flickr screen name, why not to choose your real name? It can be also your business name or your place. You can change it later, whenever you wish.

3) Now you will personalize your profile, all this can be edited later. Upload your buddy icon from your computer, it can be changed in future.

4) More critical step is to choose your custom Flickr URL. This can’t be changed later, so think twice and choose wisely! It will be your Flickr address so think similar way when you choose domain name for your website. It can be the name of your brand or your destination or something else, a word that you might be interest to be found when people search on the web.

5) Now it is time to use Flickr to find out what other people are saying about your destination and/or your tourism business. Find the photos that help to tell your story. Favourite some pictures that you like by clicking “Favorite” on top left of the photo, it is same as “liking” on Facebook.

Write some comments, be generous. This the way to get connected and start relationship with people on social photo sharing site.

In next post we will look how to upload your own pictures to Flickr and promote them.

Awesome! Thanks for using my photo of Tito at the Pochimilco Market. For anyone who visits my account, you’ll find about 1,000 photos of this market online which states the point that the market has a history. If you go to the market, take a photo and upload it to Flickr, you’re contributing to its future. The same point could be made about any touristed place.nnI’ve found Flickr a great introduction to Web 2.0, aka social media. For it to be effective, one must use this on a regular basis. Travelers learn how to look for destinations, aka places and the preparation for a trip segues into sustained interest if you mark the other photographers you like as a ‘contact.’nnI recommend Flickr tou00a0tourism service owners. Check out the world travel operators featured on Planeta.com as they upload their favoritesu00a0http://www.flickr.com/groups/workshop21